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Gary Glisson

 

From:
munford, tn 38058
Post  Posted 26 Aug 2016 5:34 pm    
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has anyone played thru a traynor amp? I found one its tube amp with 2 12'' speakers mid to late 70's mfg
thanks gary
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John Limbach

 

From:
Billings, Montana, USA
Post  Posted 27 Aug 2016 7:12 am    
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Gary:

I have a couple of early 70's Traynor heads that I restored. I really like the Bassmaster. Did a lot of mods including increasing the low frewuncy response in the preamp stages and changing the tone stack to Fender values to get a more pronounced mids "scoop". Also individual biasing of each output tube.

I like it a lot for lap steel. Be glad to share any mod info with you.

John
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Allan Haley

 

From:
British Columbia, Canada
Post  Posted 27 Aug 2016 11:22 am    
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Hi. I have a 71 YGM 3. I replaced the original driver with an Eminence 12. I know of one pro player who cut the speaker baffle to fit an Eminence EPS 15.
I like the amp a lot. I don't use the reverb, and the tremelo is pretty unusable (speed is way too fast). However, it was cheap and has tons of power and a very very clean bright tone.
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Michael Brebes

 

From:
Northridge CA
Post  Posted 29 Aug 2016 12:13 pm    
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You are talking about the YGL-3 Mark 3 amp that is similar to a Fender Twin. I still have the one I bought back in 1973 and it still is my #1 amp. Great sound. Fender late Tweed-style preamp with a Marshall style power amp and Ampeg reverb circuit. Some later ones had some strange mods to the preamp circuit but can easily be modded back to the original circuit.
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Allan Haley

 

From:
British Columbia, Canada
Post  Posted 30 Aug 2016 4:26 pm    
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YGM3
Very reliable. Clean. Unmodded, original hand-wired. Also, very inexpensive.
Traynor never caught on in the States. Peter Traynor was an amp tech/maker in Toronto who worked for Long and McQuade before he started his own line of amplifiers.
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Allan Haley

 

From:
British Columbia, Canada
Post  Posted 30 Aug 2016 4:28 pm    
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James Quackenbush

 

From:
Pomona, New York, USA
Post  Posted 6 Sep 2016 2:17 pm    
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I have a couple Bassmaster heads ....The one with the fan in the back is the higher powered model .... They are considered the poor mans Plexi ....I get some great tones out of mine without any mods ....I will look into some of the mods at another time ...JIm
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Walter Killam


From:
Nebraska, USA
Post  Posted 6 Sep 2016 5:15 pm     YBA1 Bass Masters here
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I have a pair of YBA1 Bassmaster heads, #1 is configured for Clean Headroom, and I had #2 modified to add a preamp gain pot, and configured for early break up. I use them together for Bass mostly, but I ran my steel up through #1 and it was plenty Clean & Loud. #2 sounds REALLY good for 6 string & lap. I haven't changed the tone stacks on either and probably won't, I figure if I need more control I can add an EQ pedal to the front end. Traynor amps are starting to catch on, so keep a sharp eye out if you're looking.

All that said, for Pedal Steel, I prefer my Evans FET LV 500
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Bob Carlucci

 

From:
Candor, New York, USA
Post  Posted 10 Sep 2016 9:28 am    
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I have had a bunch of them, probably 8 over the years, from the big YGL4 100 watters down to the little Guitar Mate and Studio Mate, Guitar Mate had 1 x12, Studio Mate was the same amp, but with 4X8!.. SOOO cool!.. They are excellent amps.. virtually bulletproof.. That being said, I personally have never really bonded with the sound.. The front end is just too clean , and to my ears, lacks harmonics.. They sound a little sterile to me. Almost like a Music Man, or a Peavey with SS front end and tube output. Good, but just not "complex" enough.. I like the Fender sound a lot better. If you like a tube amp that will not distort period, get a YGL 4.. They are a pretty good steel amp, anvil like reliability, nice reverb, but VERY heavy, and to my ears, not near as sweet sounding as a Twin... bob
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John Limbach

 

From:
Billings, Montana, USA
Post  Posted 10 Sep 2016 12:24 pm     Re: YBA1 Bass Masters here
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Walter Killam wrote:
I have a pair of YBA1 Bassmaster heads, #1 is configured for Clean Headroom, and I had #2 modified to add a preamp gain pot, and configured for early break up. I use them together for Bass mostly, but I ran my steel up through #1 and it was plenty Clean & Loud. #2 sounds REALLY good for 6 string & lap. I haven't changed the tone stacks on either and probably won't, I figure if I need more control I can add an EQ pedal to the front end. Traynor amps are starting to catch on, so keep a sharp eye out if you're looking.

All that said, for Pedal Steel, I prefer my Evans FET LV 500


Walter:

Where did you insert the gain pot? I'm getting ready to do that on my Bassmaster. No sense reinventing the wheel.
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Walter Killam


From:
Nebraska, USA
Post  Posted 11 Sep 2016 11:39 am    
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I didn't do it myself, my local amp wiz did the work. I didn't describe this well, what I have is the Master Volume mod which allows me to drive up the pre gain while controlling the overall output. Then I installed a matched pair of Red Svetlana EL34s, and some OLD Ratheon 12AX7s I had in my tube stash.

Some of the most common mods are described at:

http://www.kilback.net/Traynor_Tweaks_rev12_sk2007.pdf

My Tech added the pot to one of the holes originally used for guitar input on channel 2, and then configured the other 3 so that 1 goes to channel 1, 2 goes to channel 2, & 3 goes both channels bypassing the need to bridge the channels manually with a patch cord. If you haven't bridged the channels you should give it go, there's some real magic there
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MIchael Bean


From:
North Of Boston
Post  Posted 13 Sep 2016 10:56 am    
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I had a YB1A Bassmaster. It was a great amp that I could play bass through one night and guitar the next.

I was just given a YSR-1 Custom Reverb head. It doesn't work yet, but its going to be nice. I'm looking forward to some PSG through it.
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Michael Hummel


From:
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Post  Posted 14 Sep 2016 11:57 am    
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Here's a great story from when I was a teenager living in Toronto (sounds like a fairy tale but my friend swears it is true):

I had two bandmates that had summer jobs at Traynor (now Yorkville Sound) in the east end of Toronto. One of them fondly recalls when Steve Miller was in town for a tour and needed to find a bunch of amps. He asked Pete Traynor to take a couple of Bassmasters up on the factory roof and thrown them down to the parking lot. Once they took out the broken tubes and replaced them, the amps worked perfectly fine.

Steve Miller and bandmates were so impressed they bought a bunch of them for the rest of the tour.
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